Hundred Years' War

Here's a scene from a great 1989 movie
of the Shakespeare
play about Henry V

When the last French king in the direct Capetian line
died in 1328 AD, the English king Edward
III, who already held a large part of France, claimed the right
to rule all of France - to be the king of France as well as the king
of England. At this time Edward III was only eighteen years old. War
broke out in 1338. At first the English won some big battles.

But the war went on and on, even
after Edward III died in 1377. Partly because of the Black
Death, neither side could really end the war.
Under their new young king Henry V, the English won a especially
big battle at Agincourt in 1415,
where Henry used a new weapon, cannons, to help him win the battle.

The place where Joan was burned in Rouen

The English managed to take over almost all of France.
But Henry V died young, in Paris, and after he died, the French started to win again under a great military
leader, a woman named Joan of Arc, who recaptured the towns of Orleans and Reims, among other places, for her king, Charles VII.

Margaret of Anjou (age 14) marries Henry VI

Even though the English eventually
captured Joan and burned her alive in Rouen in 1431, the French continued
to win the war and in 1453 the English king Henry VI (the son of Henry
V) gave up his claim to rule France. Henry suffered from mental illness, and his wife Margaret of Anjou ruled for him. Henry and Margaret lost all England's land in France
except the port at Calais (kal-AY).